John C. Wright's Journal

Part Seven and Conclusion: Cosmos and Chaos

We conclude our overview of Problem of Pain inherent in the Monotheist worldview, versus the Problem of Piffle inherent in the Atheist. The previous entries are here:

• Part One
• Part Two
• Part Three
• Part Four
• Part Five
• Part Six

This overview is not the final word on any of these topics, nor even a close examination: Each point raised has possible rebuttals and counter-rebuttals not here addressed.

This overview, at best, is meant to be a rough survey of the lay of the land to identify where apologists for either view would be wise to prepare answers for deep questions.

While not underestimating the difficulties of defending the monotheist view — for while there is an answer to the Problem of Pain, there are no easy answers — this overview demonstrates the atheist worldview, due to shallow and foolish philosophical roots, faces difficulties more numerous and more fatal.

Simply put, there are too many deep questions to which atheist worldview provides trivial answers or none at all.

A logically consistent atheist worldview portrays the cosmos as nihilist hence irrational, unreal, unknowable, nonsensical, immoral, antinomian, ugly and hopeless.

The human soul cannot flourish in such a cosmos: the atheist avoids despair only by embracing pointless hedonism or paltering hypocrisy.

The atheist answers to the deep questions of life are piffle. That is his main problem.

We conclude with a list of such unanswered questions.    Read the remainder of this entry »

Part Six: Formless & Void (Concluded): Chaotic and Ugly

We continue our examination of the Formlessness and Void necessarily implied by the atheist worldview below. The previous entries are here:

• Part One
• Part Two
• Part Three
• Part Four
• Part Five

We have previously established that a godless view of the universe, to be logically consistent with itself, must view the universe as nihilist hence irrational, hence unreal, agnostic, nonsensical, immoral, antinomian. 

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Part Five: Formless & Void (Continued): Amoral and Anarchic

We continue our examination of the Formlessness and Void necessarily implied by the atheist worldview below. The previous entries are here:

• Part One
• Part Two
• Part Three
• Part Four

We have previously established that a godless view of the universe, to be logically consistent with itself, must also be a nihilist hence irrational universe, an unreality where fiction and fact are indistinguishable, words are arbitrary, knowledge is impossible. It is hence a nonsense universe.

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Part Four: Formless & Void (Continued): Unreal, Unknowing, Nonsensical

We continue our examination of the Formlessness and Void necessarily implied by the atheist worldview below. The previous entries are here:

• Part One
• Part Two
• Part Three

We have previously established that a godless view of the universe, to be logically consistent with itself, must also be a nihilist hence irrational universe. 

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Part Three: Formless Void: Nihilist and Irrational

This is the third of a six part series investigating the paradoxes confronting monotheistic and atheist models of the world. The first part is here; the second part here. 

The atheist worldview, by denying a Supreme Being, denies not only a rational creation, but denies any supernatural element or aspect to creation, including universals.

This means the atheist universe is a nihilist universe, void of metaphysical truth.
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Part Two: Foundations of the Cosmos

This is the second of a six part series investigating the paradoxes confronting monotheistic and atheist models of the world. The first part is here. 

For the monotheists, our view of the cosmos rests on nine foundations.

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The PROBLEM OF PAIN and the PROBLEM OF PIFFLE

Part One: Monotheism and Atheism

Here follows the first of a six-part series of columns exploring the metaphysical and philosophical implications of monotheism versus atheism, comparing the paradoxes each must address.

*** Read the remainder of this entry »